mfl: What is still missing for Dematic today and how long do you give yourself to achieve the goal?

Rostagno: The Dematic service offering covers all the important individual elements to proactively serve customers. Based on its global strengths, Dematic as a full-service provider has a focus on continuous improvement and innovation, including in service with permanent adaptations to the latest technologies. The integration of all these innovative and intelligent elements into new service models is the challenge that we will implement over the next two years in order to come up with even more customized offerings.

mfl: What "pain points" that usually annoy customers have you discovered?

Rostagno: The market environment is more volatile and e-commerce demands maximum performance in terms of lead time, speed and quality in order processing and delivery due to customer expectations. Both pain points require a correlating level of support, ranging from fast, predictive maintenance to on-site system upgrades. A digital twin of the entire system or subsystem significantly supports decision-making processes. The simulation can reveal future capabilities, quantify potential for improvement and enable fact-based investment decisions.

mfl: What can Dematic already do today in terms of customer service that its competitors can't?

Rostagno: Thanks to its integration expertise, Dematic can offer a holistic solution for the customer. The comprehensive range of services covers both Dematic systems and the entire operation. In addition, the service elements are flexible and scalable and can be adapted to changing requirements. Dematic customers benefit from a strong service network at local and global level. The 24/7 availability of experts who know the customer systems and our large service network provide seamless support. Thanks to VR, remote support extends into the installation, even if the expert is far away.

mfl: What role will predictive intelligence and AI play in this?

Rostagno: Modern automated systems and IoT sensors in critical systems deliver huge amounts of data. In the future, AI will make handling big data manageable by analyzing it and recognizing correlations. Proactive processes and predictions will become much more accurate and provide a reliable basis for decision-making when it comes to preventive maintenance measures, operational performance, potential problems and resource planning. Last but not least, data security is becoming a more important factor.

Free registration for the customer day "Always On - Dematic Strategies for Peak Performance": www.dematic.com/peak-performance

The article appeared in materialfluss 3/22.